The Wärnmark Group

The KW group during group excursion to Skrylle on October 1. 2018.

Research - Main Fields

Currently, Iron Carbene Sensitizers are a big part of research in our group, where the electronic properties of iron complexes are studied and adjusted. Using strongly σ-donating N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands, the aim is to alter the energy of electronic states in iron complexes, making them potential candidates as photosensitizers in solar cells. Because of abundance and availability of iron, replacing the widely employed, scarce, ruthenium and iridium-based complexes is an exciting prospect. The challenge is to extend the lifetime of a short-lived triplet metal-to-ligand charge transfer (3MLCT) excited state by increasing the complex ligand field and destabilizing a low-lying metal-centered state (MC).

Picture: Dr. Lisa A. Fredin, Front Cover ChemSusChem 7/2016

Another project is within the field of Supramolecular Chemistry - the chemistry beyond the molecule. This means that we are using non-covalent interactions between molecules, mainly hydrogen bonds, to construct assemblies of molecules that should have new properties that are more than the sum of the individual molecules. Self-assembly is used in Nature to build up organs such as the brain from smaller components. In our group we use advanced organic chemistry to covalently build up the molecules (building blocks) we want to assemble by non-covalent interactions after designing the molecules with respect to hydrogen-bonding pattern and their spatial positions to form the desired aggregate. For this purpose we use molecular modeling and quantum mechanical calculations. Characterization of the so formed assembles in solution is challenging and a lot of effort is devoted to apply and to develop methods for their characterization, some involving advanced mathematics.

Group News

November 2018

Science has published an article coming from our iron carbene project. It is available as First Release publication on Science homepage. [link] Om, Olga and Nils are among the authors. Huge congratulations!

October 2018

The group took advantage of the amazing autumn weather on October 1st and went on a group excursion to Skrylle. After a great walk we had lunch, before we had fun in the playing area.

September 2018

Samuel Persson has resumed his work from this summer on the Iron Carbene Project where he is working with Olga, now working on his Master's project.

Nano Letters have published an article from the Thermoelectricity project that Hailiang is a part of. Congratulations!